Oh Charlie (swept aside) Green, you’ve got Celtic wrong!

Sevco owner, Charles Green, got himself a bit confused last night when talking about Celtic, saying, “Our main rivals, or our former main rivals, across the city, they have had three different companies in their lifespan.  In fact if you look at their corporate structure now it’s more complicated than Rangers”.

For the record……..

Celtic were formed in 1888.  The officeholders of the club accepted personal liability for all debts until the club became a limited company on 12 April 1897.  On that day registration number SC003487 was given to The Celtic Football and Athletic Company Limited – a private limited company.

In 1994 Fergus McCann opened the club up to 10,000 supporters by making the club a public limited company, which then became known as Celtic PLC.  It is the same company, with the same registration number, SC003487.  On the same day the company became a PLC, Fergus, in his wisdom, registered a new company, with exactly the same name as the old company (The Celtic Football and Athletic Company Limited), in order to prevent another party registering the name, which retains an historical association with Celtic.  The new company is wholly owned by Celtic PLC.

Celtic now have in the region of 29,000 shareholders.  They, alongside every shareholder in our 125 year history, have made sure that every debt was settled.  Go to Companies House web site, click ‘Find Company Information’, search ‘CelticPLC’, for 115 unbroken years of limited liability history.

Swept aside

Green’s problems, of course, are not that people don’t understand Celtic’s corporate structure, they are that last month he told a BBC TV camera that if Rangers were liquidated “the history, the tradition, everything that’s great about this club is swept aside”.  Even he must suspect that he is not the best guy to lead his new club forward.

On the alleged illegal registration of players issue, Green was more contrite: “HMRC has still to reach a decision or announce their decision. I understand the SPL has put a panel together to look at this issue and we will contest it every inch of the way.  The view of the club, the fans and indeed newcomers like myself is that those titles and those games were won fairly and belong to this (sic) club.  We will fight it to the finish.”

At last we can agree.  If Rangers won trophies fairly they must (and will) retain them.  Speaking to Sky News in March Sir David Murray could not have been clearer that no Rangers players had dual contracts while his board was in charge.  If this is the case, Rangers have no case to answer.

However, if the old Lumley-troubler’s memory of this issue has failed him, then matters will take a different course.  If Sevco inherit Rangers SFA membership, they will be looking at many years of penalties to compensate for their decade or more of illegal player registration.

Prima Facie Evidence CSC.

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